It's time for a closer look. According to Bruce Walker, executive coordinator at the District Attorney's Council in Oklahoma City in Oklahoma, who has handled thousands of deadbeat dad cases during the past several years, "most deadbeat dads are frightened, angry, and depressed men who fall into several overlapping categories:
Remarried SupportersWalker believes most of the problems are cause by a system that ignores individual differences and tries to force everyone into a neat and tidy bureaucratic box. The solution, Walker believes, is to recognize that each family is unique, with different needs and different ways of getting needs met.
Men in Poverty
Fathers Helping Mothers
Fathers Paying Child Support
Men with Actual Custody
Men who can't Find their Children
Fathers who Love their Kids, but won't Work for Them
Child-support Resisters
Not all men can afford to pay child support, for example, but many "deadbeat dads" provide alternate forms of support, such as home and auto maintenance. For a variety of reasons, some "deadbeat dads" have custody of the children, even if the mother has legal custody. And sometimes fathers pay bills directly rather than through the State Office of Support Enforcement. Whatever the arrangements, they should not be ignored.
Rather than allowing bureaucrats to try and pound square pegs into round holes, it's time to recognize that individuals can and will make arrangements that work for them, and that there's more to being a father than providing money:
Finally, recognize that the primary value of fathers to children is not as "financial objects." If there is one clear need today, it is for fathers to be closer to their children. Fathers are as irreplaceable in the lives of children as mothers. We recognize that mothers who -- for whatever reason -- do not financially support their children still have a vital role to play in the lives of the children. The same is true of fathers.
In court, she pleaded guilty to one count of sexual exploitation for having sex with a minor while in a position of authority over him.
If she were a man, wouldn't that be rape? Oh, right, we forgot -- it's different when the victim is a male.
In a related story, The Seattle Times, November 27, 1996, reports that former Seattle-area teacher Mark Blilie has been sentenced to nearly four years in prison for having an affair with a 15-year-old student. He was convicted of two counts of child molestation, one count of third-degree rape and one count of communicating with a minor for immoral purposes.
After decades of telling girls throwing tantrums is a feminist right because they aren't responsible for anything but are owed everything, could the pop feminists be coming to their senses? Don't count on it. The program relies on the same goofball gumbo of new age feel good mumbo jumbo the pop feminists have been gushing over girls for the past several years:
Television ads will feature "ER" star Julianna Margulies and print ads will feature Olympic gold medalist and gymnast Dominique Dawes giving positive messages. The Girl Power! campaign has also set up a Web site at featuring facts on young women and drug and alcohol use, sexual behavior, depression, and other topics.There is much to be said for accentuating the positive -- encouragement and nurturing a child's confidence are good things. Discipline, however, is just as important. Balance is essential. Too bad the femigogues believe only boys need discipline, and only girls need nurturing.
The article quoted three battered women's advocates who asserted that women were being arrested inappropriately and that men were using domestic violence laws as a weapon against women, sometimes in child custody battles.
Sue Osthoff of the National Clearinghouse for the Defense of Battered Women said, "Women are being charged with assault when it's self-defense or it's fictitious." Cathy Maxfield, a coordinator for Virginians Against Domestic Violence, asserted most of the women charged with abuse tell her they were merely responding to the husband's violence.
We're supposed to believe that? Does Ms. Maxfield believe the men who say they were responding to their wife's violence? No?
Hurrah for sexist double standards.
In Ottawa, the Fair Justice Society (FJS) is lobbying to add a special "third-degree murder" charge to the Criminal Code:
This charge would fill the gap between second-degree murder and manslaughter, and eliminate the lax sentences handed to people convicted of the latter charge (most often for domestic dispute cases). "We want third-degree murder applied right across the board," declares FJS representative Edie Woodland. "We have no time for women who kill men."But don't battered women have the right to defend themselves, even if that sometimes means killing their batterer? Don Wright, executive director of the Male Survivors of Sexual Assault Society (MSSAS) in Vancouver and Victoria has a slightly different perspective:
Mr. Wright illustrates the nonsensical attitude of the justice system by pointing out that "if we extend the logic, then kids who are beaten by their parents and turn around and kill them should get off scott-free -- a ludicrous notion that would horrify society."Hoards of angry 12-year-old boys turning on their malicious moms, and then using the Menendez brothers' defense? Oh, my!
Ramirez was booked into the San Mateo County women's jail on felony charges of domestic violence with injury, assault and mayhem, (San Mateo Police spokesman Terry) Reidy said.Ramirez denies using any weapons, but Ocampo suffered cuts two to three inches long and a quarter-inch deep that required 10 stitches. Acrylic fingernails, maybe? (Maybe acrylic fingernails should be banned as deadly weapons.)
In the Bobbitt case, two sleazy people weren't getting along, but because one of them was a woman, her criminal act was excused, much to the gleeful delight of new rage women everywhere. Let's hope the ladies behave less like juveniles in this case.
Julian Timmerman and Andrew Swab didn't quit when Montgomery County authorities told them this year that they couldn't play on the girls field hockey team at Walter Johnson High School in Bethesda. Julian just hitched up his kilt, and the boys signed on to be team managers.Why don't they join the boys' team instead of harassing the girls?
(A)lthough the teenagers are not allowed to set foot on the field during a contest, they have succeeded in provoking debate over whether boys ought to be able to try out for sports long closed to them, just as girls have competed for spots on football and baseball teams.Pop feminist types contend allowing boys on the girls team would deter girls from joining. Ironically, the girls disagree:
Some of the biggest supporters of the boys' right to play have been the people who might be most threatened by their presence: their female teammates. "If there's no boys team, then they should be allowed to join the girls," said Maeve Miller, a senior goalkeeper. "In Montgomery County, I thought we're supposed to believe in gender equity."A case of the kids being more grown up about it than the adults.
His crime? He stuck his tongue out at a female classmate.
"He got suspended for sticking his tongue out at me?", asked his surprised victim, "I don't think he should have got suspended for that." Little does she realize how egregiously she has been harmed. Thanks to her vigilant school marms, however, she'll learn.
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